Friday, July 27, 2012

7/26/12 Impact

Ratings:
Gail Kim & Madison Rayne vs. Mickie James & Tara: *

Douglas Williams vs. Sam Shaw: *

James Storm vs. AJ Styles: ***1/4

Zema Ion vs. Kenny King (X-Division Title): **1/4

Kurt Angle vs. Bully Ray: ***3/4
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Reviews/Thoughts:
Lots of people with words about Chavo Guerrero. Some in character, others share their legit feelings.

But first, Sting starts the show tocall out Aces and Eights. Aries and Angle join Sting in the ring. Roode then makes his appearance, accusing James Storm of being behind Aces and Eights. Storm and Roode brawl, while the other three guys just look on, not knowing what to do. Not sure what the segment was supposed to really accomplish.

We have Knockouts tag action. Madison Rayne is one of them, and guess who's reffing this one? Our ol' buddy Earl Hebner! Let's see how this whole Madison Rayne crush thing plays out, shall we? Starts out fairly normal. Madison gets in and plays all lovey-dovey with Earl. Good wrestling moves from Mickie and Tara. Mickie with the bridge rollup. Earl, in a questionable position to make the count, counts three. He could see Madison's shoulder get off the canvas, but not Mickie's. I guess if there was ever a way to make a confusing finish a good one, this was it. Even the sound people got confused. Nice.

Gut Check time with Sam Shaw. He was on last week, but Aces and Eights got to him. Douglas Williams is his opponent. Love the pick, a great ring veteran who can make others look good. Shaw has one of those Orton backbreaker-regular neckbreaker combos that looks pretty good. Plus he can kip up easily. See the "87%" signs? Yeah, that's Joey Ryan in the crowd. Al Snow chases Joey out of there. Meanwhile, Williams hits Chaos Theory on Shaw for three. I think Shaw's got a bright future. Personally, I wish these Gut Check matches went a bit longer if the contestant has real talent to show. You only make your first impression once, my friends.

Aries gets the task of picking Zema Ion's opponent tonight for the X-Division title: Sonjay Dutt, Kenny King, Dakota Darsow, or Rashad Cameron. Cameron get the boot first.

Here we go with Chavo's debut. He gets a hero's welcome. Kid Kash and Gunner spoil that party. Hernandez with an awkward entrance into the ring, but he helps Chavo clean house.

Storm and AJ Styles in a BFG Series match. Both now have distractions to worry about (AJ has Claire Lynch at ringside and Storm has the whole Aces and Eights accusation). Claire has a damn good vindictive look. Good match here, several near falls. Only Storm is challenging for the BFG Series lead; Styles is in the bottom half of the standings. Aces and Eights interfere at the end, so the match gets thrown out, even though the group physically didn't go after Storm. Luckily for James, no DQ for him, woulda been costly. If anything, it helps give Roode ammo that Storm could be behind all this.

Sam Shaw doesn't get a week, he learns his Gut Check fate now. Many tweets are posted, mostly saying "yes" for Shaw. Al Snow says no because he was too busy detaining Joey Ryan. Pritchard says yes. Shaw with a nice emotional plea to Taz. Taz does say yes. I agree, mainly because I think Shaw has a good physique. Should be a great addition to the roster.

Aries cuts Dakota Darsow next. ROFL at the Repo Man reference.

Zema Ion goes to the ring, and Aries makes his final cut. Sonjay is cut last due to the bad shoulder, so it's Kenny King's time. King really has some great moves, a good balance of technical and lucha. Roode interferes for who knows why, and Ion takes advantage for three. Guess it was to piss Aries off, because A-double gets some after the match. Good match, wish the crowd got even more into it, though.

As a result, next week, Roode/Ion vs. Aries/King. That's the way to elevate the X-Division!

Outstanding main event between Bully Ray and Kurt Angle. Would you expect anything less from an Angle match? Just great counters, back-and-forth stuff. Hot crowd helped the rating big time. Aces and Eights attack Angle. Sting, Aries, and Styles help Angle. Note Bully Ray went to the outside and didn't factor in any of this. Storm chases Aces and Eights away, but Angle still thinks Storm is part of that group. So why not? Angle vs. Storm next week. BFG Series match. Book it!

Another great Impact. TNA's been doing a heck of a job!

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